Sales, marketing and tech knowledge for wholesale brands and salespeople.

If it’s one thing we hear from sales reps, it’s that they want to spend more time selling (and less time doing anything else). For those of you hitting the road, here are some wholesale selling tips we’ve collected over the years to keep you focused on selling as your #1 priority.

Wholesale Selling Tips to Make More Time for Selling

1. Show up prepared

Make sure to review your customer’s file before you show up at your appointment so you can spend less time looking things up and more time building rapport. When you arrive, you should be fully aware of:

Routine re-orders. Processing a re-order or replacing out of stock units should be quick and easy. The faster this is done, the more time you have to focus on selling additional products or showcasing any new items.

Favorite items. You should know your customer’s order history. It’s impressive when you bring this intel to the conversation, and terribly un-impressive when you don’t.

Recommendations. Better prep on your end means making informed suggestions on new products based on your customer’s order history.

Coming to the table prepared not only means you’ll be able to better control the conversation, but it also shows respect for your customer’s time.

2. Use a digital catalog

Having electronic access to your product line allows you to maximize your visit with a customer (and has a side benefit of making you look cool).

Fumbling through a paper catalog or sifting through physical samples of your products is a time suck. Alternatively, zipping through your catalog with a few clicks and/or swipes is a much more efficient way of showing off your inventory.

Not fully ready to ditch your samples? Some sales reps use a hybrid approach, where they bring product samples of new or popular items they want to show in person but rely on use of a digital catalog for the rest.

Apps like StoryDesk or ShowPad help you digitize your catalog. Digital catalogs are also a feature of sales order management platforms like Handshake.

3. Stop faxing, calling or re-entering orders you’ve already written

Once you finish a sales visit, if you are building time in your already too busy day to look for a fax machine, call in or email the order to your customer service team, or manually re-enter the order into your company’s back end system, you are wasting valuable time.

Sales order management software like Handshake syncs directly from the field to your back office so you don’t need to waste your time re-doing what you already did.

4. Be smart about your route planning

Assuming you’d rather be selling to customers than sitting in your car, it’s in your best interest to be smart about the location of your sales calls. The closer, the better. Travel apps like inRoute make it easy to manage and prioritize multiple destination points.

If there’s a chance that your schedule might change throughout the day, make sure to book your highest value customers in the beginning of the day before the day escapes you.

5. Take care of yourself

Look, we had to say it. If you find yourself forgetting your customers’ names, showing up late to appointments, or just generally not being on your A-game, it might be time to get some sleep, exercise, drink a coffee – whatever you need to focus. The last thing you need is YOU being your biggest distraction to closing a sale.

Have any tips that you use to make more time in your day to focus on selling? Share in the comments below!